Screengrab showing police officers at scene of shooting in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on May 9 2021. (Via Reuters)
A birthday party in the US city of Colorado Springs has turned to a bloodbath after a man shot dead six people before killing himself.
"The suspect, a boyfriend of one of the female victims, drove to the residence, walked inside and began shooting people at the party before taking his own life," said the statement released by the Colorado Springs Police Department.
There were children inside the trailer to celebrate when the shooting occurred, the statement added.
The fatal shooting happened within the Canterbury Manufactured Home Community, a mobile home park of some 470 trailers and largely Latino residents on the southeast side of town, near the Colorado Springs airport, about 70 miles (110 km) south of Denver.
"Somebody came in and shot everybody," said Freddie Marquez, who was at the party but left sooner, relating what he had been told on the phone by a survivor.
A motive has yet to be determined.
The fatal attack came hours after another deadly shooting, which left four Americans, including a gunman, dead in Baltimore, Maryland.
The state of Colorado saw another mass shooting this year, in which a 21-year-old man killed 10 people in a March 22 shooting spree at a supermarket about 30 miles (50 km) northwest of Denver.
Sundays massacre was the latest in a resurgence of mass shootings in the United States after such occurrences seemed to recede during the height of coronavirus pandemic restrictions.
The recent shootings have revived the gun control debate, with Democratic President Joe Biden calling them a "national embarrassment" and calling for new legislation from Congress.
Biden faces fierce opposition from gun rights advocates including Republicans and some Democrats who cite the US Constitutions protection of gun ownership rights.
US gun-buying spree
The recent spate of US mass shootings has prompted a gun-buying spree in the country, with a new Rasmussen poll showing that 35% of US adults who live in gun-owning households have bought more firearms over the past year amid increasing violent crime and riots in many of Americas largest cities.
Rasmussens figures are corroborated by data from the FBI that reported that a record-high 39.7 million background checks were carried out last year for US gun purchases, up 40% from 2019s total.
The Rasmussen poll showed the arms buying binge is so strong that ammunition is in short supply with nearly half of the poll respondents saying they had difficulty finding ammo for their weapons.
Americans accounted for about 46% of the 857 million guns owned by civilians worldwide, despite making up just 4.2% of global population, according to the 2017 Small Arms Survey.
The issue of gun control in the US continues to be one of the most divisive issues in American politics.
With about 121 firearms in circulation for every 100 residents, the US is by far the most heavily armed society in the world, according to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, a research group.
The Second Amendment of the US Constitution enshrines the "right to bear arms," which the countrys apex court says allows individuals to keep handguns at home for self-defense.
The free access to guns and little control over them has paved the way for the spree of mass shootings in the US in recent years.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/22174
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